Highly maneuverable stylish tender

Having first fallen in love with Venice more than 15 years ago it was inevitable that I would eventually think about acquiring a holiday home in the city.

I now need a boat with tender like characteristics. It'll be a boat for city transport more than cruising open waters. I mean, I'd like for it to be able to cruise the Venetian lagoon, but I wont take it out into the Adriatic.

I need it to be highly maneuverable to negotiate the smaller canals. Size is definately an issue as it can't be too big.

It needs to be easy to get on and off, mooring it needs to be fast and simple and to top it all off, I'd like it to stand out a little bit in terms of design.

As this will be my very first boat, I have no idea where to even begin to look. Obviously I intend to see a few boatshows, but other than that I thought that the best idea would be to ask someone like you guys.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ben.

Thank you for your suggestion though I have a few issues with those models. First, though I am willing to sacrifice top speed for maneuverability, I was hoping for something a bit faster than 5-6 mph. Okay, to be honest, probably something quite a bit faster.

Range is an issue here as well. At top speed - of 5-6 mph - these models will do 4 hours at most. That isn't very far if you'd like to take the boat out into the lagoon one day.

And finally, I'm not sure that the word "stylish" mean the same thing to you and I

I have been looking through some of the threads on here and I like the more classically inspired tenders, like Riva, Comitti, Diva Royal and HackerCraft and I think something like that would suit Venice very well.

Maneuverability is still top priority though and I am not sure if these choices would live up to that?

Well, there's a quite simple reason as to why I didn't mention Dolvik and that is that I know very little about boats.

Now that I have taken a look at them I must say that I prefer the more comtemporary retro look of the others, though obviously I would have to see them up close.

I like the Alen Yacht Tender a lot. My only concern is that it's almost as big as the WallyTender. I will take a look at a few maps I have of the venetian canals and see if I can figure out a size requirement.

I have found a website that lists most if not all upcoming boat shows. My problem is that there are a lot of them. Which ones are the ones to go to? Preferably in Europe.

I looked through your pictures and noticed the Frauscher stand. Checked up on them and I think the Frauscher 717 GT might be the perfect boat for me.

That and the Riva Iseo are currently at the top of my list. Any idea what the latter might cost when it becomes available this summer?

I know the Monaco show might cater to yachts in a different league, but I figure that those yachts need tenders, right?

- And there's nothing wrong with second-hand boats. I just don't see that many nice boats there, which would suggest that the second-hand market might not be for me. I'm not sure. Will look into it.

Thank you.

I am not sure that the Riva is worth the extra money over the Frauscher as you can get the larger 909 Benaco for about half of your estimate.

Does anyone know if a Riva - in this case the Iseo - is worth it? Does it offer any real lift in quality or does it simply come with a very expensive badge?

Also, if anyone has any horror stories about Frauscher - poor build quality ect. now is the time to tell.

The 717 GT, according to the Frauscher website can be acquired for €140,000 while the larger 909 Beneco would set me back €280,000.

I'm not sure how much I'm willing to spend. I just don't want to feel I'm being screwed by buying, say a Riva only to find out that it offers nothing more than a boat half its price tag, other than a Riva badge.

Finding a berth is not an issue as the property I've bought features a water entrance with a private berth.